Bear and Eagle, 2020, cedar, paint, and abalone. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Salish Weave Collection of George and Christiane Smyth, 2022. Photo: Janet Dwyer
Eagle and Salmon, 2018, cedar, paint, and abalone. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Salish Weave Collection of George and Christiane Smyth, 2022. Photo: Janet Dwyer
Salish Owl, 2018, carved black walnut. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Salish Weave Collection of George and Christiane Smyth, 2022. Photo: Janet Dwyer
Syalutsa, 2019, yellow cedar, acrylic paint, and strings. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Salish Weave Collection of George and Christiane Smyth, 2022. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
John Marston’s carving style straddles historical materials and legends and modern-day spiritual expression, demonstrating the continued vitality of Coast Salish cultural practice in our contemporary world.
These works by John Marston express ancestral Coast Salish teachings and reference the spiritual connection to the land through traditional and contemporary techniques produced on various object forms including bentwood boxes and masks. Bear and Eagle and Eagle and Salmon are cedar bentwood boxes. Bentwood boxes are traditional to the Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples and have many uses: storage boxes for food, medicine or ceremonial regalia, water buckets, burial boxes, canoe tackle boxes and more. The design covers all four vertical surfaces of each box, integrating images of the bear and eagle along with other animals.
Salish Owl is a large carving in black walnut. In Coast Salish culture, an owl’s call can summon the Spirit World. Marston was inspired by the natural world and the connection with the walnut tree that grows within his traditional territory. Syalutsa is a large carved mask capable of being animated: a highly innovative element of traditional masks that were danced in ceremony. Stringed handles are used to move the eyes up and down and to open and close the mouth. Syalutsa is a visual representation of a Cowichan origin story: Syalutsa is the first human being who fell from the sky. He opens his eyes when he first comes to the land, and he opens his mouth and drinks the water, finding healing properties there. Syalutsa gave the Cowichan people weirs (naturally-formed dams) ensuring abundant fish for their people to eat.
John Marston (Qap'u'luq) (b. 1978, Ladysmith, British Columbia) is from the Stz'uminus First Nation and like his siblings, artists Angela and Luke Marston, he studied with his parents, carvers Jane and David Marston. Together with his brother Luke, John carved in the Thunderbird Park carving program of the Royal British Columbia Museum, which gave him the opportunity to work with many leading carvers of other Indigenous Nations as well as expand his knowledge of legends and Coast Salish traditions. Marston was honoured with the BC Creative Achievement Award for Aboriginal Art in 2009 and in 2013 opened his first solo exhibition at the Inuit Gallery (Vancouver). Marston has works on permanent display at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology (Vancouver), Vancouver International Airport, the Vancouver Convention Centre, Nanaimo Airport, CFB Esquimalt, and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). His work has also been featured in numerous publications and is held in many private collections.